Memory's Domain

El Tejon- a story of carnage and cafeteria food by J. Hazlett and P.Vander Giessen

It was a sunny morning, and I was sitting in Mr. Cleary's classroom, getting bored with
grammar. I sighed. Mr. Cleary had a tendency to give these stupid assignments, though
this was balanced by the large amount of creative writing that he gave us. At the time,
the school cafeteria food was not on my mind.
That was when it happened. The lights in the classroom seemed to brighten
abruptly, blinding me for a minute. I had seen them blink on and off before, but this was
was something new.
As my eyesight cleared, I looked around. Everybody was blinking in
astonishment. Some were looking out the window. I turned in my seat. I shook my
head. Huh? There seemed to be a flying saucer on the lawn. I shook my head again.
Maybe I had been reading too much science fiction lately.
The saucer was large and silver colored, just like in the supposed eye witness
accounts. It was glowing faintly. I assumed that it had been glowing brighter earlier,
causing the effect that I had seen a few minutes earlier. A section in the edge of the
vessel gleamed bright red abruptly.
The window shattering above me as a result of the ray that issued from that
section also shattered any doubts I had about the saucer's reality. It seemed that the
aliens were hostile as well as real. The ray fired again, annihilating a row of students. I
decided that now was the time for getting out of sight. I dove under my desk.
Around me, people were screaming and running around. Someone stepped on my
hand, then toppled to the floor. I noticed that his head was missing. I threw up. The
vomit and blood mingled to form an unpleasant mess on the ground. I looked in the
other direction.
Someone ran past. I grabbed him and pulled him under my desk. Maybe I could
save one person's life. I noticed that the him was a her. I had grabbed Barbara Sherk.
There was a horrific grinding sound. Tiles began to fall from the roof. A few
seconds later, the roof followed. The desk sagged beneath the weight. Barbara fainted.
That was good. She stopped kicking and scratching.
I began to dig through the rubble. After a few minutes of digging, I finally came
through to sunlight. The ceiling was gone. I glanced about quickly, looking for the
saucer. I couldn't find it, but students and teachers were still panicking. I pulled Barbara
from under the rubble and decided to leave. I pushed Barbara under an exposed table
and left.
Deciding to leave was the easy part— deciding where was more difficult. I
finally decided on the Focus Room. It was underground and earthquake resistant. I raced
along the sidewalk toward it.
On the way, Ry Fyan, Dusty Carter, and my sister's friend, Bonnie something or
other, joined me. As we ran, I heard a scream behind me. I turned my head to see what
was happening. Ry had been shot in the leg. He fell to the ground. Another ray pierced
his chest. His clothes lit, surrounding him in a halo of fire. A third ray pierced his head,
splitting it in half. Wretching, I continued toward the Focus Room.
Daniel Ewen and Shawn Hoffman were already there.
"What's going on?" asked Daniel.
John Hazlett had entered at this point. "Total carnage! Alien invasion! News at
ten!" he cried.
"Huh?" asked the stupified Daniel.
"Homicidal aliens are killing everybody," explained John.
"I don't believe you kids," said Miss Manville, the Focus teacher, "I'm going up to
look and see what's really going on!"
John giggled. He had held a grudge against Manville for a while. Manville went
up the stairs to the ground level. With the help of a chair, I peeked through a high
window. I saw an alien for the first time, rushing down the hall. I heard Manville yell,
"don't run in the hall!" It was the last thing she ever said. No surprise.
Mr. Karnes, the math teacher; Mrs. Mason, the tech lab teacher; and Mr. Cleary
ran across the pavement. Luckily, the alien had exited the scene earlier. The three
teachers made it to the Focus Room. Mr. Cleary and Mr. Karnes were both holding a
small, round object in their hands. They looked a lot like the thing that the alien had
killed Mrs. Manville with.
A barrage of alien fire streaked toward the teachers. Fortunately, their aim was
worse than the one that shot Manville. One beam balded Cleary even further.
The teachers made their way down into the Focus Room. They slammed the door
closed behind them. The Focus Room was filled beyond its limits. Now there were nine
of us: John, Daniel, Shawn, Dusty, Bonnie, Karnes, Mason, Cleary, and me. It was
obvious that some had to leave. Mr. Karnes made the suggestion, but for a different
reason.
"We can't stay here," said Karnes. "Those aliens will find us sitting here, a virtual
shooting gallery. If we leave, we can make a break for the parking lot and get out of
here, covering ourselves with these weapons"
"Do any of us know how to use these weapons?" I asked. There were some quick
glances about the room. "I didn't think so. The way these triggerhappy aliens are blasting
away, we have a pretty good chance of being buried by wreckage from the rooms above.
I think we should stay here, and wait for it to hide us. We can dig out later, when the
aliens have left."
"And what if we aren't buried?" asked Shawn, "Then the aliens will get us. I vote
that we should leave."
"Okay," said Mrs. Mason, "Why don't we split up. Whoever wants to go, can go;
whoever wants to stay, can stay."
"Sounds good," I said, "I'm staying."
Mr. Cleary, Daniel, and John agreed with me. The rest left. One alien weapon
stayed with us, and Mr. Karnes took the other.
"Let me look at that," said John to Mr. Cleary, fingering the weapon. "You're not
doing anything with it."
"Fine," said Cleary. "Here." John began to examine the weapon, fiddling with
some of the toggles.
I heard the crash I had been waiting for.
We waited for over half an hour. The muffled sizzling of the rays outside began
to cease. I started to talk nervously.
"My sister has the flu today," I said. "I felt sympathetic for her this morning.
Now I wish I was there."
"No crap, Pete," said John.
I caustiously opened the door leading to the outside. At first, I could not see
anything through the dark. That was a good sign. Rubble had apparently covered the
opening. My eyes adjusted to the dim light.
I realized that we had omitted an important part in our plan. How were we going
to get out. Oops.
"Hey guys!" I called, "We have a small problem. How in the heck are we going to
get out?"
"It's hell, Pete, not heck," corrected John.
"Watch your launguage, John," said Cleary.
"Always the teacher," said John.
A second later, there was a yelp from Daniel.
"Sorry," said John, "now which button did I press to make it do that? Was it this
one—Oww!"
"What's going on?" I called.
"We seem to have found a way to dig outselves out." said John.
My friend walked out into the stairwell, clutching his hand. I could see blood
between his fingers. Daniel followed, limping. Cleary came out from behind a cabinet,
which we had been using as a latrine.
I gave the rubble a better examination. An intact section of wall had fallen over
us, blocking the exit. I could see blacktop through its uneven edges, as well as a few
aliens lounging on the grass. The sunlight outside was bright. It was probably about
lunchtime.
John aimed the nozzle of the weapon at the fallen wall. He took a deep breath,
and pressed the button. The wall was scorched by an invisible beam, but the weapon
failed to carve an exit. Daniel and Cleary lowered their heads. I realized that the
situation might be worse than I originally thought. John was more hopeful.
"I saw those aliens knock down walls with these. There must be some kind of
intensity control on it. One of these dials or something."
"It will take forever to figure out which one," said Daniel.
"Not necessarily. Let's go about this logically." I groaned at his allusion to Mr.
Spock. "We know that the fire button isn't the intensity control."
"Great John, that just leaves the other nine buttons on that thing," I said
sarcastically."
"And the two dials. But the buttons look like they're attached to this seperate unit
here. That's most likely the battery. This dial has cones of differing widths marked on it,
and this one has different colors on it. It starts with purple, and moves through the
spectrum to red. There are also areas that are invisible on either side. Right now, the
pointer is in the invisible zone beyond the red. I bet that this dial is the intensity, and the
power settings are measured on an energy scale based on the electromagnetic spectrum."
"Huh?" asked Mr. Cleary. He was an English teacher. I didn't expect him to
understand sciencese, which both John and I were fluent in. "Can you work it, or not?"
"I think so." He turned the dial, aimed, and fired. The wall briefly glowed under
the duress of the purple ray, then shattered. A few jagged stones landed in the stairwell,
the rest blowing out.
Naturally, the aliens noticed this disturbance. Sneaking out was not going to
work.
"Run!" I shouted.
Daniel's foot seemed to heal automatically. He wasn't limping as he ran.
We rushed around the Gym, over the fence surrounding the school, and across the
access road. Aliens followed, their beams slicing the ground around us. One sliced
Daniel. He screamed, and fell. In multiple pieces. I turned away. There was obviously
no way to help him. Now there were three.
We rushed behind a house, and into the hills. We squeezed through the barbed
wire fence. Sharp metal spikes dug into my skin. I winced. The laser that hit my
shoulder after I got through the fence damped out my minor scratches. I clutched the
wound and followed the others up the slope.
The aliens had set the grass around us on fire. Regaining his composure, John
remembered the laser. He turned and fired. He completely failed to hit anything.
Glancing about, he tried again. His aim didn't improve. He continued up the hill after us.
For some reason, the dials on the weapon popped into my head. There were two,
I remembered that, and one had the colors on it. The other one had... cones. The other
one had differently shaped cones. Could that be the width control?
"John, the other dial! Crank it up to the widest cone you can!"
John smiled. "Why didn't I think of that?" He rotated the dial, spun about, and
shot. The normally narrow beam was now wide, covering a larger area, which included
three aliens. More came out from behing classes and buildings. John subtly sweared and
ran.
Some type of foamy substance ensued from a port in the flying saucer, covering
the mountain. The fire died down. That was good. The goo covering us was not good.
It clogged my hearing and my nostrils, as well as blinding me. I clawed it away from my
face and ears. John was doing the same thing.
Where was Cleary?
I noticed the charred remains of a human lying on the ground where the fire had
been a few moments ago. Apparently, Cleary was very well done. Oh well.
The crest of the hill was only yards away now. I pleaded with my aching muscles
to get me to it. On my last few drops of energy, I heaved myself over the top. I
collapsed, gasping. I looked over the edge, as John made his way up. He was in worse
physical condition than I was, but by the determination in his eyes I could see he would
make it. He was almost over the crest when a brilliant beam of blue-violet hit his back.
He collapsed. I couldn't see any wounds. Maybe it was a stun ray. I hoped that it was.
John's death would be distressing.
I rushed to John and began to drag him up the slope. His 200 pound weight
hindered me. I managed to get him over the top. The down slope was easier. I rolled
him down slowly, hoping that he wasn't awake. All those rocks must have hurt him.
Halfway down, I stopped. A human teenager was approaching me. Something
was in his arms. I left John and ran over to him. I could see who it was now— Luke
Donev, a friend of mine. I could also see that it was a someone in his arms.
"Luke!" I yelled. Tears were running down his cheeks.
"Andrea's dead," he said. Luke was very interested in Andrea Carnelle. He
wouldn't be anymore.
I started to say something comforting. That was when the stun ray hit Luke. I felt
a brief pressure in my head, and sensation faded.

***

I awoke in a small, gray room. This wasn't my room! Memory of the recent
events snapped back. I jumped to my feet. At least, I tried to jump to my feet. All that I
accomplished was a weak shrug.
A door to my right slid open.
"Pete?" said John, walking through the door.
"What's going on!" I cried feebly.
"We're safe aboard a flying saucer in high Earth orbit."
"And Elvis lives," I retorted.
"I wouldn't know. Anyhow, we were picked up after they stunned us. I woke up
first, to find myself surrounded by the extraterrestrials. They spoke in perfect English
somehow, and explained their error. The cafeteria food we've been eating did contain
alien flesh."
"You're kidding," I said.
"For once, I'm dead serious. Somehow, either the cooks at the school or their
sources wound up providing us with alien meat by the bucketful. You are practically the
only one who hasn't had a gut filled with Tau Cetians."
"So, it was a good idea to always bring a lunch, like I did?"
"Lucky S.O.B." John paced about. "Anyhow, Luke woke up half an hour after I
did. Fortunately, Luke didn't recognize the effects of the stun ray when he saw them on
Andrea. She was undergoing minor surgery to fix her broken back when he woke up, and
that's where he is now, greeting her when she comes to."
"So everything is all right now."
"Sorry, Pete, but that brings us up to the problem. Five minutes ago, the President
issued a statement requesting assistance from the Russian space program and the
European Space Agency. Congress has declared war. The only reason why this ship is
still in one piece is because we're on board, and the armed forces are reluctant to take us
down."
"Can't we just say that we're fine and that the aliens made a mistake?" I asked
"Nope. They would blame Stockholm Syndrome, or mind control, or something."
"Stockholm Syndrome?"
"That's when hostages begin to identify with their captor."
"Oh, okay. Just one more question. Why did they shoot everyone else and just
stun us?"
"Because they had realized their mistake by that time. They only wanted to stop
us from alerting the military until they could fix the school and the kids up. They
managed to save most of the people, and then the military came. They decided to keep
us as hostages."
"So, what do we do now?"
"Meet the captain, if you can get up now."
I grunted and sat up. John helped me to my feet. Leaning against him, I walked
out into a corridor. We walked to the far end and went through another door. The bridge
of a starship was on the other side. I gasped. This was cool!
Three aliens were sitting in front of a computer bank. A large viewscreen
stretched in front of them, showing Earth and several space shuttles. The shuttles had
what looked like nuclear missiles in their cargo bays. The Russian Mir space station
floated threateningly behind the shuttles. Luke and Andrea were standing in the center of
the bridge, talking to another alien. By this one's fancy uniform, I assumed that he was
captain.
"Hello Pete," said the captain, "I am Captain Sam, at least, that's what you can call
me. My real name is rather hard to pronounce. I assume that John has explained the
situation to you?"
"Yes," I replied, somewhat dazed. A real starship bridge! My life was complete.
"Then I have a proposal. We need a few minutes to activate our FTL drive. We
need you on board to buy us that time. If you come with us, you can spend a few months
touring the galaxy, and then we can bring you back when our governments have
negotiated peace. Does that sound okay?"
"How soon can we leave?" I said, my mouth hanging open.
"Now."
"Let's go!"
The deck plates beneath me began to vibrate. Luke grabbed my arm.
"Come on. Alien plants don't taste like alien people. The galley is this way."
I began to leave with him. As we left, I overheard John speaking to the captain.
"So, Sam, what are you willing to trade for rice?"

Note: The names of these people are real. Hell, I used to got out
with Luke. No slander or mental anguish is intended.

In other words... Please don't sue!!!!

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page